Mark von Bommel

By: Jan | August 21st, 2007

You may or may not know that Bayern Munich’s Mark van Bommel isn’t on friendly terms with Dutch national team coach Marco van Basten - as is/was Ruud van Nistelrooy. This culminated in both players quitting the team. Nistelrooy nonetheless has rejoined the Oranjes lately, while van Bommel remains in exile as long as van Basten is still coach. On a local Dutch TV station (TV Limburg) van Bommel now had an important announcement to make:He also said, that he already consulted Joachim Löw, the German FA and his club about joining the Mannschaft.

For those who aren’t well versed in German football history: yes, the Netherlands and Germany indeed share and celebrate a long running football rivalry. It’s been more folklore mixed with playful elements than a true fierce rivalry as of lately though, due to the lack of any meaningful matches between the two sides in recent competitions. Yet, when the Netherlands crashed out of the World Cup last year, the rivalry was still healthy enough to inspire a number of German fans to board their cars, cross the border and tell their neighbours personally that they just crashed out of the World Cup.

A Dutch tabloid took the bait and turned this into a headline, forcing van Bommel to clarify that he was obviously joking. He even apologised for the joke. Quite reassuring to know that the Dutch didn’t take that announcement too lightly. And the whole story should be read this way anyway: van Bommel hates van Basten so much, that he would rather join the German national team. It’s that bad.

So there really can be only one scenario in which a Dutch player could feature in the German national team.